DJ Paul Van Dyk the Latest to Diss Radiohead and Their Pay-What-You-Want Model
7/3/2009 By Jason Schreurs

Grammy-winning DJ Paul Van Dyk has taken the sentiments of artists like Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and the Cure’s Robert Smith one step further, slamming Radiohead in a recent video interview with Time Out Chicago [via The Daily Swarm] about their pay-what-you-want model for their latest release, In Rainbows.

Van Dyk went on a lengthy rant against Radiohead during the interview, saying it was easy for Radiohead to ask their enormous fan base to pay what they want for album downloads, but the story wasn’t nearly the same for upstart bands and small-time artists who didn’t have such privileges. Van Dyk then made the suggestion that Radiohead should act as a kind of music industry Robin Hood, taking money from eager consumers and doling it out to needy bands. Well, heck, here’s what Van Dyk told Time Out Chicago in his own words [courtesy of the kind folks of TwentyFourBit]:

Bands like Radiohead who basically made millions and millions and millions of dollars back in the days when there were no download sites. They can easily say, “Hey whatever, we don’t need the money,” just put it out there. It’s such an easy gesture for them. But at the end of the day those young talented bands, they have to live off every single dollar they earn. They can’t just give it away. And this is something where I believe that thing that Radiohead did was absolutely counterproductive for developing music and for any artist in the world. And was very selfish. But the thing is, you just have to see the bigger picture. It’s not like they just give their music away for free to somebody. I mean, they don’t need that money, fair enough, so why not. But in return, what would have been a fair gesture is saying, “Okay you pay for my record but I don’t take the money, I give it to the young bands, I give it to whoever supports interesting new music.”

As we reported in October, Radiohead made more money from downloads of In Rainbows alone than they did off the entire combined sales of their previous album, Hail to the Thief.

Radiohead have not issued a response to Van Dyk’s recent comments, or those of Gordon and Smith, and we’re guessing they probably never will.
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